Back to the list of projects

Length and type of unemployment

F1DCHOM
At face value, women do not seem to be penalized by unemployment. The unemployment rate for women is identical to that of men, while the duration of their unemployment is slightly lower (15.2 months compared to 16.9 months for men). However, a closer look at the situation shows that the situation is less straightforward. Women are more affected by the "unemployment halo" and do not necessarily seek the same types of jobs as men. The duration of unemployment also raises questions. This duration depends, in particular, on how intensely the unemployed person seeks work and on the prospects offered by the labour market. Concerning the first issue, many studies have emphasized how this search intensity varies according to the individuals' preferences, their decision-making processes, and also depends on their ability to adjust their beliefs (Villeval, 2016). For example, unemployed Americans misjudge their average duration of unemployment, largely underestimating it (Spinnewijn, 2015). In this case, they are likely to engage in inappropriate jobseeking behaviour. Concerning labour market prospects, recent research has shown that men and women do not necessarily have the same expectations with regard to employment. Women seem to value flexible working hours and reduced commuting time more than men do (Petrongolo and Ronchi, 2020; Le Barbanchon et al., 2019; Clark et al., 2019). We aim to investigate these factors of unemployment duration by gender in relation to the economic situation. Men and women do not project themselves in the same ways in the labour market, but are they influenced in the same way by changes in the economic climate? Our aim in this research will therefore be to compare these developments by gender according to any shocks affecting the employment market. We hope to examine the influence of these shocks on the characteristics of jobs sought by men and women.